Hello Thaivisa members,

I went with my girlfriend to Suanprung and we are very disapointed by that (see thread below), we went there 3 months ago, after a intake they wanted to keep her there for observation, I promised her before that she don't have to stay there wich was a big fear of her, so we agreed an outpatient program, she get a bag full of medicines and a appointment for next week, no explanation about the side effects and what to do when things go wrong, so no guidance at all.

The next day she wake up like a zombie, she could hardly speak and walk, horrible to see her like that, so I found an email adress on the Suanprung website from a senior docter and asked for advice, I got a quick response , halve the medicine and come to me next week the docter said. next appointment the docter prescribed mood stabilizers and prozac and a appointment for over 2 weeks, no guidance or further examination or interview, but things went better, she seemed more happy and I was happy that something was happening, so no complaints, next appointment one month later..

But in meanwhile sometimes it went wrong again, very aggressive and angry sometimes, so we discussed that with the docter and my girlfriend cried a bit when she was talking about that, then the docter said to my girlfriend that she must behave more nice like a good woman and not be so angry and because she was crying so easily she doubled the dose of prozac, I did not know what I heard and my girlfriend also," I am not allowed to cry anymore she asked me later"

I also asked the docter about the diagnosis and how to go on, will there be talks with a psychotherapist to process things or only medicines, the diagnose was underlying depression and medicines was the way to go untill she can do it herself.

i think this is a dead end road and very old fashioned, my girlfriend needs to understand herself more and learn to avoid the traps in her mind and in my opinion this can be done by talking and talking and maybe with the support of medicines.

In CM there must be a more modern approach to be found, CMU or a foreign therapist for example, any of you know something about that?

She and I will be very helped with that!

Thanks in advance...

Sadly that's the way things are handled in Aisan cultures. If you want a Western approach then you will most likely have to seek help in America or Canada or somewhere like that. I lived in the Czech Republic for a number of years and observed that the approach there was just like in Asia. Basically, they tell the patients to 'get over it and move on, be strong, don't be weak'.

BTW, a lot of those medications take several weeks to reach therapeutic blood levels. There won't be a change overnight.

Good luck.

Check the Health Body & Medicine forum there seems to be lots of good health advice there . You might find a thread that will give you some where to go with the g/f

I think there is an American trained Thai Psychiatrist at Ram.

Suan Dork Hospital has a small psychiatric unit and they provide counselling if requested.

in America the working class people are said "to be too poor to be depressed", in other words have to just go to work and not complain because there are mouths to feed. Perhaps a bit of the same mindset with the approach here and maybe also trusting the confindentiality since there is a possibility of losing face with the stigma attached. Hopefully things will change in time as they have with more developed nations.